Getting ready to bring home a new baby? Learn what you need to know with one of these selections.

• The Joy of Pregnancy: The Complete, Candid and Reassuring Companion by Tori Kropp (Harvard Common Press, $14.95). As a labor and delivery nurse Tori Kropp was troubled when she saw so many anxious and unprepared patients. Even though the women had read all the related books, Kropp could see the true joys of being pregnant had been lost in the translation. Here, she writes with humor and joy about this special time in a woman’s life. Each chapter explains what’s happening to the woman’s body and the baby inside.
• The Best Birth: Your Guide to the Safest, Healthiest, Most Satisfying Labor and Delivery by Sarah McMoyler and Armin Brott (Da Capo Press, $18.95). If you’re interested in learning a new method for delivery, read about the McMoyler Method, an approach that prepares couples for the arrival of their new baby. It’s written by a registered nurse with over 20 years of experience delivering babies.
• Jo Frost’s Confident Baby Care: What You Need to Know for the First Year From America’s Most Trusted Nanny by Jo Frost, Hyperion, $15.95. Jo Frost was a nanny for 17 years before she became the star of Supernanny. Here, she blends humor and empathy into a practical guide filled with emotional support for parents during their child’s first year of life. Learn how to baby proof your home, set up routines for feeding, sleeping and development, and make confident choices about going back to work, day care and nannies.
• Miscarriage Medicine & Miracles: Everything You Need to Know About Miscarriage by Bruce Young, M.D. and Amy Zavatto (Bantam, $25). Written by a physician and his patient, this comprehensive and compassionate look at pregnancy loss covers the causes and prevention of recurrent miscarriage and brings clarity to an often misunderstood condition. Here, the experienced doctor and a patient who has gone through miscarriage combine the medical facts with patient insight — and hope.

Debbe Geiger is the mother of two daughters and a son, and a regular contributor to this magazine.

Summer Fun, Part II

Last month this magazine introduced the annual Summer Reading Club. If you haven’t yet signed up, it’s not too late. What is the program all about, you ask? For most libraries, it’s the centerpiece of their calendar of summer events for children of all ages. In many libraries babies and toddlers can participate. Parents or caregivers who read with young children can return each week to their library and claim a prize, while young readers receive prizes for the books they read. In communities where many children go to sleep-away camp or travel, libraries may have special arrangements for participation. This summer many libraries are offering the Summer Reading Club on line. This will allow children to participate in their district’s club wherever they may be.

More than any other program offered by libraries, the Summer Reading Club benefits families. It provides an incentive for parents and young children to establish the reading habit, share quality time and make the library a family destination. It allows children to be rewarded for reading from their school’s summer recommended book lists, while it encourages them to discover new subjects and authors they might not have time to explore during the school year.

Marcia Pryluck is head of youth services at the Brentwood Public Library.